


On Switch

by samcat



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-10-02 06:08:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10211255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samcat/pseuds/samcat
Summary: Q is thinking about getting a tattoo and decides to try out a temporary one before getting a real one.





	

**Author's Note:**

> My whole subscription box on youtube right now is full of people trying out temporary two week tattoos, so I figured hey… why not make that into a 00Q fic.
> 
> I haven’t been writing any fiction in a long time now, so this could count as a kind of warm-up fic for me, I guess. But I want to properly get back into fic writing sometime soon.

James walked in on Q sitting crossed legged on the floor in front of the TV, pressing a cloth against his arm.

“Are you hurt?”  
“Huh?” Q turned his head. “Oh. Welcome home, James,” he turned his eyes back to the TV. “And no, I’m not.”

“What’s with the cloth, then?” James asked as he hung up his coat and walked into the livingroom.

He sat down on the sofa behind Q’s back and looked more closely at what he was doing. “And why does it look so dirty? You’re usually such a sanitary freak, I would have guessed you were the kind of person to never use the same cloth twice even if it had been washed.”

To James, the cloth looked like somebody has used it to clean a chimney, stained an almost black dark blue shade. It was not the kind of thing that he would ever have thought Q would willingly hold against his skin.

“If you’re not going to be polite, I will have you moved back to your own flat,” Q said. “May I remind you that this living-together-thing we’re doing right now is still in its trial stage? I will not hesitate to kick you out.”

Not interesting in hearing what James might have as a reply, he stood up and lifted the cloth off of his arm, placing it in an empty plastic bag that had been waiting on a table nearby. Left on his arm was what looked like a dark blue sticker about the size of his palm.

James stood, too, and took a long stride over to stand next to Q.

“What are you doing?”  
“Tattooing myself.”  
“What?”  
“Temporarily,” Q quickly corrected himself. “I have not been stabbing myself with any needles. But I have been thinking about getting something,” he said as he begun to slowly peel one of the corners of the sticker off. “And I want to test out what it’s like before I commit to anything. Like our living arrangement.”  
“Mmh,” James hummed, still sounding a bit confused.

“This,” Q nodded towards the sticker. “Has been letting ink seep into my skin. But it still remains only in the top layer, which means it will eventually wear off when my skin regenerates.”

“Won’t you just wash it off in the shower tomorrow morning?”  
“Not according to the people who made it.”

Q had peeled off the sticker entirely now, revealing a very faint outline of a power symbol.

“That doesn’t exactly look like a tattoo.”  
“It’s going to darken overnight,” Q lifted his arm closer to his face to look at it. “And then it will remain on me for a few weeks.”

“And after it has faded away?”  
“I might get it, or something similar, tattooed for real.”  
“Wouldn’t have taken you for the kind of person who’d get tattooed.”  
“Me neither,” Q shrugged. “But a few months ago I happened to stumble across some interesting information about it online and I have been researching it in my freetime since. It’s actually quite an interesting process to get tattooed. It’s a whole art form.”

“I’m sure it is,” James didn’t have the energy for the attention that would be needed for listening to Q go on one of his rambles right now. And while they were usually very educational, tattooing was not a subject James thought he would ever need any knowledge about.

“Have you had dinner?” he asked instead, hoping to distract.  
“No, I was waiting for you.”

-

“One step closer to being an android, then. Having got yourself an on-and-off switch.”

They were laying in bed together, much later than it should be. Both of them had a bad habit of staying up far too late into the nights.  
“Very funny,” Q did not sound amused. “Unfortunately for you, pressing it won’t actually turn me on.”

James laughed at that, making Q smile in return.

“But really, don’t press it. Don’t touch it at all tonight. It could stain.”  
“Fine,” James laughed again. “Wouldn’t want to get an ink stain that won’t wash out.”

“Exactly.”

After having made some adjustments to their usual sleeping positions, they found a comfortable way to lie together - Q with his tattooed arm on the pillow next to him, and James with his arms around him.

Q could feel James’ breathing slowing down as he fell asleep. And feeling his breath, calm and steady, against the skin on his neck was something that always helped Q relax into sleep as well. He had found that the nights he spent sharing a bed with James were the nights he got the most sleep - contrary to his initial worries of being kept awake by the other man’s snoring.

He smiled to himself as he let his own breathing slow down to match James’ pace.

The last thought drifting around in his head before falling asleep was about somehow incorporating the word ‘android’ into the permanent tattoo design he was considering getting.

-

The tattoo had darkened considerably by breakfast time. It looked realistic enough, Q thought, for it to work as intended - giving him an idea of what having an actual tattoo would be like.

James, no longer afraid of getting ink stains, had carefully stroked it while they were waiting for the toaster to spit out the bread for them.

“Looks much better today.”  
“Doesn’t it? And it will likely have gotten a bit darker still by tonight.”

“Looking forward to seeing it again then,” James said as he took a sip of his tea. “As far as I’m aware, I’m not going to be shipped off on a mission today. I’ve only got a London briefing scheduled.”

The two of them jumped when the toast popped up. No matter how used they both were to gunfire, the toaster never seemed to fail to give them a scare.

“Right,” Q said, while he spread butter on his toast. “And when you get back tonight you won’t have to worry about not touching it, either.”  
“Well then,” James smiled. “I might try and see if pressing it turns you on, after all.”


End file.
